


Don't Lose the Melody

by Suzume



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s), Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2015-06-26
Packaged: 2018-04-06 05:34:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4209873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suzume/pseuds/Suzume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the noise in the Capitol focused around the newest victor, Claudius, Mags and Finnick carry on with their usual business.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Lose the Melody

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lorata](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lorata/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Where is the Silence](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4063327) by [lorata](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lorata/pseuds/lorata). 
  * In response to a prompt by [lorata](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lorata/pseuds/lorata) in the [remixmadness2015](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/remixmadness2015) collection. 



> Or: Don't Lose the Melody (the song remains the same remix)  
> Also draws on some material from [Fixed to a Star](http://archiveofourown.org/works/655081) regarding the District Four tributes in Claudius' Games. Something of a glancing remix, Lorata, but I hope it's still enjoyable. :)
> 
> Contains references to all sorts of canon-typical unpleasantness (death, prostitution, etc), but nothing explicit.

It's so bright in the train station when Mags arrives in the Capitol on (officially) some sponsorship business that it would easy to think it were day. But she gets her papers scanned and goes outside and the night makes its presence clear, studded as it is with neon and other artificial light. There are television screens up and down the street. All the noise- maybe that's what makes some of those so-called elite that crazy. The lower, lesser parts of the Capitol may be louder and tighter packed than any life she's used to, but they still seem like places a person could want to live. Do they call what they do here living?

         Claudius is the most common subject of the screens. Claudius is being officially interviewed, clips from his Games are being replayed and commented on, Claudius is interacting with fans. Even considering how thoroughly every second of footage is used and reused until the last bit of juice has been squeezed from it, the boy must be exhausted. And he didn't strike Mags as the sort of take to the Capitol easily.

         She carefully skirts a party is spilling out into the street, laughing and drinking and chatter bathed in amber light. She keeps her face turned down and no one even notices her. The manic ocean of activity (can it really even be called a celebration?) swells all the way to the top of the high-rise. Maybe Claudius is even there at the top of it.

         A limousine honks at her and she steps back onto the sidewalk, feeling the strain as she pushes hard with her weaker foot. Her limp flares up after that, making her glad she brought her driftwood walking stick, but Mags carries on, glancing up to catch glimpses of other footage mixed in with the constant flow of Claudius-related material. She keeps looking for a face she'll never find. The Capitol loves new things much more than old ones. Mags finds old things and new lined up in her heart side by side.

         There's Finnick's image up there. He makes her want to hurry. Sometimes it feels like her whole life has been waiting, waiting, waiting. She doesn't want Finnick's life to be like that.

 

         A trusted stylist has secured a place for the meeting that's her real main business out here (still, she has stacked some sponsor business alongside it to keep up appearances). The woman in question opens the door, but Pal's arms are her first real greeting. He starts babbling off right away about Woof and Chrissie and Cecelia, and she's sure his accent has grown thicker since the last time she's seen him with how little he gets out of the district. Mags looks over Pal's drooping shoulder at Beetee and Haymitch and Miracle and the smattering of non-victors with whom they share their confidence (this stylist and two Avoxes from the center and Acteguarde, the former escort, holding Miracle's hand). The groups that gather are always small, and smaller outside of Games season.

         "Valse was too nervous," Beetee speaks to the absence of one expected rebel. Seven's lack of a representative goes unremarked upon. There have been too many eyes on their Village since the arrival of Johanna.

         Everyone talks. What about Six, in once with Sunny, but uncertain after her passing? What about Nine and Ten? What about One and Two? Approach the wrong person and everything could be destroyed.

         "Now that she's got this Claudius," Haymitch drawls (Mags thinks it's the most laid-back of accents), "What do you think about Lyme?" He doesn't have to have a victor of his own to be fully aware of how that changes everything.

 

*****

 

         There's a woman with long white hair, twisted and tied, sparkling as light glints off all the tiny diamonds threaded through it. It's decadent and empty, for all that it could be beautiful. If it were Mags with her wavy hair all glimmering like that while she napped on her window seat, it would be beautiful. Of course, Mags wouldn't think it was very practical. Maybe if they weren't real diamonds, just cheap imitations, and they weren't uncomfortable to wear though…

         Finnick arrived at the party knowing that woman is who he's going home with. He turns away from her to look at other things, to think about other things while he can.

         The Capitol is still feting Claudius. And even dressed to match the wallpaper, Claudius isn't handsome. As a matter of fact, he looks big and out of place (Lyme is big too and very definitely not Capitol, but she knows this song and dance well enough that there's some version of Lyme she settles into that seems to belong). And Finnick's had some talks since the last time he was in the same place as Claudius and knows that even if he had been "an angel come to earth" as Mom's saying goes, he's Two and he would have avoided this bum deal. So, fine. Force the Capitol to, at least temporarily, love something ugly. Something real. It might do them some good.

         Finnick wishes this party hadn't been quite so exclusive or Theo might have come to provide a little buffer from all the endless inanities (Song won't come unless she's made to, Mags and Odysseus have a harder time being invited because of age), but aside from Two's guests of honor, there are no victors present who haven't been sold. There's nothing anyone can do to prevent the inevitable conclusion, but…

         Is it better to have a complete disconnect between the Finnick of the Capitol and the Finnick of District Four?

 

         Claudius drinks the same fizzy pink stuff as Chrissie Warp, whose breasts bounce as she laughs. She parties compulsively, fighting her encroaching age (she's, like, thirty-three or something, but she won over ten years ago and this is the Capitol), a little because she thinks it's fun, a little so no one ever asks her why Cecelia would rather stay home with her child than keep on being a part of all this. Finnick knows because she's told him as much. He hopes Cecelia knows how lucky she is to have a mentor both willing and able to make that kind of deal on her behalf. It wouldn't matter if Mags made the exact same offer- there's no way Snow would accept.

         He knows that Cashmere and Gloss are here for the same reasons he is and probably no others balanced alongside them. The pink dress Cashmere is wearing is as light as a piece of candyfloss and she's wrapped around some bearded man like the dress is wrapped on her (just as much as she has to be, he thinks). Gloss is picking an olive on a toothpick off a tray.

         Finnick's not in the mood to talk to them tonight. They tend to receive too much attention to chat that freely anyway. It's like whatever thrill it gives these Capitolites to be around one hot young victor is multiplied several times over to be around two or three of them at once. He's not sure he's ever had a conversation with Gloss that someone didn't interrupt.

         And then there's Lyme, watching Claudius. Finnick has no idea what he'd talk about with her. …Weight-lifting or something?

         In the end, he simply moves about from one set of banalities to another until he has to go.

 

*****

 

         Mags is sitting on the train when Finnick enters. "What're you doing here?" he asks, too surprised to be accusing. They didn't arrive together. He assumed his mentor would be at home for the Capitol stretch of Claudius' Tour, the same as Four's other five victors no one cares about this year.

         "A sponsorship meeting was moved up at the last minute," she replies.

         "Mrs. Surfjan told me the two of you were going to bake some bread and get together with some of your people." He tosses his bag carelessly to the side and sits down beside Mags. He had a hard time imagining Mrs. Surfjan lying to him unless Mags had put her up to it and, in his- admittedly limited- experience, Mags never bails on anything with her fellow religious people.

         "I didn't think this one could wait." She seems somewhat apologetic, like she might be embarrassed at having this pointed out.

 

         Four didn't do badly in this year's Games. As usual, that will play well with sponsors. But Finnick knows he won't be as quick to forget how things fell out for them as the Capitol will (and Mags, well, she'll probably remember forever). Marina and Percy. He'd known both of them a little before.

         Marina had seemed to carry on in a pretty good state of mind throughout, but there wasn't much room for second chances when the Gamemakers provided a river of fire as an obstacle. She'd been friends with Lulu, who was always putting her up to stuff. Finnick wonders if, after that, Lulu is more or less likely to volunteer next year. He doesn't have enough experience to guess.

         Percy had been a piece of work by the end, but they put people back together in Four, right? No one had a drug or drinking problem. No one was stark raving. …Of course, the way he felt sometimes… What had happened to Jules… Maybe they weren't all patched up in a way that was permanent.

         It's probably better not to think too hard about it.

         And if either Marina or Percy had won, eventually they would have been right at those parties- more like one endless party, really, that simply ebbed and flowed- alongside him.

         Finnick tells himself it's probably better not to think too hard about that either.

         He leans his head on Mags' shoulder.

         When Finnick gets home, he's already made up his mind that he's going to walk Mags home and then he's going to take a very lengthy shower and he'd prefer not to talk with any of his family members until he's enjoyed a good long stretch of quiet. He vaguely wonders who Claudius goes home to, seeing as Careers in Two don't seem to have any family. And then, whether Claudius likes the snow that must be coating his home district now. Also, what Lyme is doing to help Claudius, since they definitely put people back together in Two. …Then again, so what, who cares about Claudius? He doesn't have the energy to care.

         "Mags," he whispers, "I'm so tired."

         "Me too, _mi hijo_ ," she sighs.


End file.
